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Intelligence/IQ/GRE by academic field

Post author:Emil O. W. Kirkegaard
Post published:30. July 2013
Post category:Differential psychology/psychometrics/Education/intelligence / IQ / cognitive ability

Data are based on GRE averages. Data from here: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/01/classicists-are-smart/

I have sorted them for Average-SDU, i.e. estimatedg (intelligence). As a funny note, top 10 includes 5 different physics fields. #11 is also physics…

Data file here:IQ data by academic field GRE

Illustrations from the same source.

Field	V-mean	M-mean	V-SDU	M-SDU	Average-SDU	Difference-SDU
Physics	540	743	0.66	1.05	0.85	-0.4
Classical Language	619	633	1.32	0.32	0.82	0.99
History of Science	596	661	1.13	0.51	0.82	0.62
Astrophysics	540	727	0.66	0.95	0.8	-0.29
Mathematics	523	740	0.51	1.03	0.77	-0.52
Atomic Physics	522	739	0.5	1.03	0.77	-0.52
Solid State Physics	514	743	0.44	1.05	0.74	-0.62
Biophysics	523	727	0.51	0.95	0.73	-0.43
Classics	609	616	1.24	0.21	0.72	1.02
Planetary Science	545	694	0.7	0.73	0.71	-0.03
Physics, Other	519	723	0.48	0.92	0.7	-0.44
Philosophy	591	630	1.08	0.3	0.69	0.78
Astronomy	525	706	0.53	0.81	0.67	-0.28
Materials Science	509	728	0.39	0.95	0.67	-0.56
Chemistry, Physical	513	708	0.43	0.82	0.62	-0.39
Nuclear Physics	506	715	0.37	0.87	0.62	-0.5
Optics	495	729	0.28	0.96	0.62	-0.68
Aerospace Engineering	498	725	0.3	0.93	0.62	-0.63
Biomedical Engineering	504	717	0.35	0.88	0.62	-0.53
Operations Research	483	743	0.18	1.05	0.61	-0.88
Nuclear Engineering	500	720	0.32	0.9	0.61	-0.58
Chemical Engineering	490	729	0.24	0.96	0.6	-0.72
Economics	508	707	0.39	0.81	0.6	-0.43
Russian	584	611	1.03	0.18	0.6	0.85
Applied Math	487	730	0.21	0.97	0.59	-0.76
Linguistics	566	630	0.87	0.3	0.59	0.57
Probability & Stats	486	728	0.2	0.95	0.58	-0.75
Neuroscience	533	665	0.6	0.54	0.57	0.06
Comp Lit	591	588	1.08	0.03	0.56	1.06
Chemistry, Inorganic	502	690	0.34	0.7	0.52	-0.37
Ecology	535	638	0.61	0.36	0.49	0.26
Mechanical Engineering	471	721	0.08	0.91	0.49	-0.83
Math, Other	474	715	0.1	0.87	0.48	-0.77
Electrical Engineering	465	722	0.03	0.91	0.47	-0.89
Finance	466	721	0.03	0.91	0.47	-0.87
Geochemistry	514	657	0.44	0.48	0.46	-0.05
Actuarial Science	460	726	-0.02	0.94	0.46	-0.96
Chemistry, Organic	490	683	0.24	0.66	0.45	-0.42
Computer Engineering	465	716	0.03	0.87	0.45	-0.85
Cognitive Psychology	532	627	0.59	0.28	0.44	0.3
Chemistry, Gen	483	681	0.18	0.64	0.41	-0.47
Atmospheric Science	490	673	0.24	0.59	0.41	-0.35
Geophysics	487	676	0.21	0.61	0.41	-0.4
Paleontology	531	621	0.58	0.25	0.41	0.33
Cell & Mol Bio	497	658	0.29	0.49	0.39	-0.2
Biochemistry	486	669	0.2	0.56	0.38	-0.36
Immunology	492	662	0.25	0.52	0.38	-0.26
Civil Engineering	456	705	-0.05	0.8	0.38	-0.85
Quantitative Psychology	515	629	0.45	0.3	0.37	0.15
Genetics	496	651	0.29	0.44	0.36	-0.16
Botany	513	626	0.43	0.28	0.35	0.15
Computer Science	453	702	-0.08	0.78	0.35	-0.86
Music History	536	596	0.62	0.08	0.35	0.54
Chemistry, Other	477	659	0.13	0.5	0.31	-0.37
Theology	537	583	0.63	-0.01	0.31	0.64
Meteology	470	663	0.07	0.52	0.3	-0.46
International Relations	531	588	0.58	0.03	0.3	0.55
European History	554	555	0.77	-0.19	0.29	0.97
Geology	495	625	0.28	0.27	0.27	0.01
Social Psychology	518	594	0.47	0.07	0.27	0.4
Zoology	505	609	0.36	0.17	0.26	0.2
Develop Bio	490	623	0.24	0.26	0.25	-0.02
Entomology	505	606	0.36	0.15	0.25	0.22
Marine Biology	499	611	0.31	0.18	0.24	0.13
Creative Writing	553	540	0.76	-0.29	0.24	1.06
Chemistry, Analytical	464	652	0.02	0.45	0.23	-0.43
Environ Science	493	615	0.26	0.21	0.23	0.06
Industrial Engineering	426	699	-0.3	0.76	0.23	-1.06
Anthropology	532	562	0.59	-0.15	0.22	0.73
Political Science	523	574	0.51	-0.07	0.22	0.58
Art history	536	549	0.62	-0.23	0.2	0.85
Microbiology	482	615	0.17	0.21	0.19	-0.04
Other Biology	473	626	0.09	0.28	0.19	-0.19
Epidemiology	485	610	0.19	0.17	0.18	0.02
American History	533	541	0.6	-0.28	0.16	0.88
Biology	477	606	0.13	0.15	0.14	-0.02
Toxicology	465	610	0.03	0.17	0.1	-0.15
Petroleum Engineering	414	676	-0.4	0.61	0.1	-1.01
Computer Programming	407	681	-0.46	0.64	0.09	-1.1
Physiology	464	606	0.02	0.15	0.08	-0.13
Drama	514	541	0.44	-0.28	0.08	0.72
Chemistry, Pharm	429	647	-0.28	0.42	0.07	-0.69
Secondary Education	484	576	0.18	-0.05	0.07	0.24
Pathology	468	594	0.05	0.07	0.06	-0.02
Information Science	446	621	-0.13	0.25	0.06	-0.38
Pharmacology	429	634	-0.28	0.33	0.03	-0.61
Music History	490	559	0.24	-0.17	0.03	0.4
Clinical Psychology	484	554	0.18	-0.2	-0.01	0.38
Developmental Psychology	476	563	0.12	-0.14	-0.01	0.26
Sociology	490	541	0.24	-0.28	-0.02	0.52
Psychology	476	546	0.12	-0.25	-0.07	0.37
Anatomy	443	568	-0.16	-0.11	-0.13	-0.05
Business Adminstraiton	434	570	-0.24	-0.09	-0.16	-0.14
Nursing	452	531	-0.08	-0.35	-0.22	0.27
Communication	458	517	-0.03	-0.44	-0.24	0.41
Nutrition	432	542	-0.25	-0.28	-0.27	0.03
Elementary Education	438	520	-0.2	-0.42	-0.31	0.22
Counseling Psychology	444	500	-0.15	-0.56	-0.35	0.41
Community Psychology	441	493	-0.18	-0.6	-0.39	0.43
Special Education	424	497	-0.32	-0.58	-0.45	0.26
Early Childhood Education	420	497	-0.35	-0.58	-0.46	0.22
Criminal Justice/Criminology	418	477	-0.37	-0.71	-0.54	0.34
Social Work	428	463	-0.29	-0.8	-0.54	0.52
Physical Education	389	487	-0.61	-0.64	-0.63	0.03